Susie Wolff, Female Drivers and Formula One

[FB]

who dares to click

 

[KekeTheKing]

If a female driver ever comes along that is legitimately faster than her peers, gender will certainly not hold her back.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Seems that there is a possibility of Alice Powell driving in Abu Dhabi if Caterham get their crowd funding sorted.

It will be a huge long shot though, even if its just for a practise session, theres no mention of a superlicense in the article plus she's currently driving cars that are a third of the power.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula-one/30020798?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

[cider_and_toast]

One young and upcoming British driver, Alice Powell became the first lady to win a Formula Renault series when she won the 2010 Formula Renault BARC championship

Oh yes, get in there. Finally managed to call one in !!!

 

[Dash Racing]

In my experience, to get good results in motorsports, it takes a large amount of brains and bravery in equal parts. The women I see racing at my track usually lack bravery, the self preservation instinct is just too great. Once in a while we get a female who is fearless but she is rarely smart enough to pull off the moves she is attempting. Most guys have plenty of bravery, they plant that gas pedal firmly to the floor and hold there until impact is imminent. The smart ones figure out what works and what doesn't and lap times improve. We have a joke at Speedworld, and there's a lot of truth in it: "guys crash because they refuse to use the brakes, girls crash because they can't find the brakes".

It's complicated for me to comment on this, due to gender identity being assumed to be binary... however, for the sake of clarity on the position I comment from, I'm female bodied, but view myself as male.

I on the whole find this to be fairly accurate. Females are far more often timid than not. When they're not timid, they are blindingly quick.

I did a little bit of karting in my younger years, and was very interested in being a pro racing driver. I was quick. Very quick. I did crash a few times, and in hindsight, I think my problem was trying to chase down the drivers ahead of me and coming unstuck because I got too focused on the distance between us, and didn't focus enough on actually driving. I got a bit too aggressive, and binned it, on more than one occasion. Didn't really learn my lesson though, and went on to do that more than once. However, binning it didn't stop me getting back in the kart next time.

And I think that's where self-preservation instinct really bites a lot of drivers, male and female. After a crash, do you have the courage to get back in the kart and not lose your confidence, and thus, your speed?

I think a lot of people fuss more over a hurt female, regardless of the sport, and that might actually be contributing to them never really getting their confidence back. Because people fuss, and a big deal is made of even the smallest accident, it may be that their perception of the danger of racing is higher than a male driver. They're also molly-coddled, and cautioned to take it easy, when really they probably need a kick in the pants and to be told to suck it up.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Better article about the possibility of Alice Powell racing. Have to think though is it just a story to help with the crowd funding?

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/1...erham-at-the-season-finale-in-abu-dhabi?34567

 

[cider_and_toast]

Given that her recent career has been extremely limited (almost to the point where the level of racing required a national a or b license) I find it somewhat hard to believe she would be allowed anywhere near a super license.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Money, money, money,
It's a rich person's world.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

She seems to have been scuppered by lack of superlicense (or lack of funds most likely)

Alice Powell ‏@alicepowell 3 minutes ago
News from my end... None, apart from it's looking very unlikely due to getting a super license! Great news for @CaterhamF1 though #F1

 

[cider_and_toast]

Nice, quick bit of PR for both of them though.

 

[Mezzer]

Ooh you're such a cynic! My personal perspective is that if someone has the genuine talent to compete then what danglies they do or do not have should ideally be irrelevant. As we've discussed on other threads, though, something that differentiates from the crowd is almost always helpful, such as a previously competing father etc.

 

[Mephistopheles]

So where are the teams going to fit the rear view mirror so that they can sort their make up out for the podium interviews?

 

[Jen]

Don't be silly. Any woman worth her salt is always streets ahead of the opposition and doesn't give a stuff about male perceptions.

 

[racecub]

I think some of the above posts show disrespect and stereotyping for women drivers. The reason they aren't in F1, or racing in general, is because traditionally it's a rich white mans game. And attitudes like some of the above take a long time to change. Women are starting to come through the lower levels of racing now, and I doubt those that reach the top levels are afraid to leave their foot in. If we're going to use stereotyping to classify women drivers lets look at the whole gambit. What about women's ability to multitask? Quite useful in a modern F1 car. If you told a top woman driver Suzie or Danika say, that they were afraid to leave their foot in , they may show you exactly what their foot can do! But then again perhaps they're just too much of the gentleman to do that

 

[Jen]

An interesting read:

http://www.fia.com/women-through-decades

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Lotus have named their new development driver.

Young Carmen Jorda who has been hanging around at the back of the GP3 grid for a few years when she has had the funds available to race.

Good move for her but is she any better than Susie Wolff?

Yes she's got single seater experience but if she's not been fast enough to keep up with everyone in GP3, what qualifies her as a potential F1 driver?

The advantage she does have over Mrs Wolff is age, she is still young so has more time to develop but I still think the next female driver in F1 will be someone completely new.

I want to see a female driver get to the grid because of merit, not because she looks good and can drive a car at the back of the grid.

 

[RasputinLives]

Carmen Jorda was a bit of a joke in GP3 she spent most of last season at the back going almost a lap down but then when she couldn't race one weekend they put Dean Stoneman in her car and he stuck it on pole by about half a second and walked to victory.

 

[FB]

F1 and Motorsport generally needs to wise up and stop requiring young women drivers to pose provocatively and measuring them by their looks rather than ability. We should start a campaign for gender equality in Motorsport as I'm sure there are probably some women out there who could mix it with the men but they don't get a chance unless they are "pretty". Let's start by getting rid of the grid girls, this is 2015 not the 1970's.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I remember Breatore posing provocatively, shall I dig up the photo..?

 

[cider_and_toast]

oh for crying out loud not a-fucking-gain please !!!